Editorial

This is my last column as the IEEE MGA Student Activities Committee (SAC) chair. It has been a pleasure to have served two consecutive terms, and I have learned a lot about student perspectives, needs, and the aspirations of IEEE Student Members. My successor is being appointed for the 2010 term, and I wish him/her as wonderful a time as I have had.     

Student support ubiquitous when you know where to look

This article sheds some light on where IEEE Student Members look for support opportunities. Some of the major types of awards available are: regional student awards, graduate student fellowship, student paper contest, undergraduate student competitions, and travel grants. In addition to these awards SAC (Student Activities Committee) has initiated two new awards: IEEE Darrel Chong Student Activity Award and the IEEE XTreme 24-Hour Programming Challenges. Thus, this type of awards provides knowledge sharing among students     

The implementation and evaluation of OASIS: a web-based learning and assessment tool for large classes

This paper describes a Web-based learning and assessment tool developed and implemented over a five-year period. Used predominately with first- and second-year students for skills practice and summative assessment, the tool delivers individualized tasks, marks student responses, supplies students with prompt feedback, and logs student activity. Interviews with instructors indicated that the software had enabled them to manage workloads in spite of rising class sizes and that student learning, based on observation and assessment results, had been enhanced rather than compromised. Student surveys, interviews, focus-group discussions, and informal feedback showed that students found the software easy to use and felt it helped them improve their skills and understanding. Student activity logs provided an insight into student study habits and confirmed the motivating power of assessment.     

The way ahead (SBC 2008)

I would like to share with you my recent experiences in attending two regional student conferences. In late August 2008, I attended the IEEE Region 8 Student Branch Congress (SBC 2008), held in London. IEEE Region 8 is composed of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The event takes place every other year and is organized by the Student Activities Committee of Region 8. It is hosted by a Student Branch, which volunteers to make all local arrangements.     

Student activities around the world: IEEE EMBS UKRI student club features PGBIOMED 2009

One of the benefits of promoting the formation of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology (EMBS) student associations around the world is to allow university trainees to engage with the global biomedical community at a local, national, and international scale. As part of our continuous efforts toward promoting student activities within EMBS, this column reflects on the experience of a successful EMBS Student Club from Europe [the IEEE EMBS United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (UKRI) Student Club] in hosting the fifth edition of a conference organized by students for students: the Postgraduate Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics (PGBIOMED).     

All for McNaughton [IEEE Student Branch Profile]

There are tales aplenty of just formed IEEE Student Branches (SB) occupying basements, cluttered classrooms, or high traffic university student centers, just trying to eke out an existence among the bevy of college clubs and activities. For the University of Victoria (UVic), British Columbia, IEEE Student Branch, there was not so much eking as there was completing. Founded approximately 20 years ago, UVic secured an office early on, complete with a library of current journals and books, and participated in IEEE student design competitions. Over the years, with the co-op nature of the engineering program at UVic, continuity and student involvement became difficult to maintain. The growth in the engineering faculty at UVic resulted in the demand for space outpacing supply. As a result, the SB office was appropriated for other purposes.     

Program guidelines and awarded scholarships [Society News]

Lists the winners of the Industrial Electronic Society Student Activities Committee student scholarships.     

Evaluation of an Online Inverted Pendulum Control Experiment

This paper presents an evaluation of the inverted pendulum experiment in control engineering from a statistical and pedagogical point of view. Student usage statistics and success rates were collected over a period of three years at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. The results in the paper show that an online experiment can both increase student satisfaction and success rate while decreasing the costs to the university associated with a traditional laboratory setup. In particular, the number of laboratory benches has been reduced from seven to one. At the same time the number of laboratory contact hours for the course administrator was more than halved.     

Optoelectronics experiments for first-year engineering students

This paper describes a set of experiments in optoelectronics for first-year engineering students. This laboratory experience is comprised of five inexpensive and transportable modules that provide a hands-on introduction to optoelectronics, these modules include different types of emitters, light-emitting diode (LED) colors, optical voice link, total internal reflection and waveguiding. Designed by a senior electrical engineering student, these modules appeal to students with various learning styles. Two hundred eight-five first-year engineering students at Bucknell University and the University of San Diego (USA) have performed these experiments. Student response to the laboratories has been enthusiastic with 80% of the students rating the lab as very good or excellent overall. Further assessment of the experiments by the instructor and the students is also discussed     

Student Experience with Interactive Computer Programs for Linear Circuit Design

Computer programs which allow interactionbetweenthe user and the machine in the design of linear circuits have been used by students of a graduate course in computer-aided circuit design. These programs, which enable the determination of circuit element nominal values to realize responses within specified constraints, have been operated both with batch processing and on-line through commercial time sharing utilities. Student experience with each mode of operation is described, including student reaction, relative gains through each type of operation, problems encountered, and exportability of this work to other schools and machines. Use of a typical interactive program for on-line design of an ac circuit is described in detail.     

The next STEP

Taking the giant stride from being a student to young professional is indeed challenging. Students often find themselves in a perplexing situation early in their career when faced with multitude of career choices. Innumerable questions like which career path to follow, how to secure that coveted job or how to leverage the IEEE advantage continuously surround the minds of the young. To make things simpler, IEEE has launched the Student Transition & Elevation Partnership (STEP) for Sections, Societies, Student Branches and GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) affinity groups across the globe. The STEP Program has a strong focus-to facilitate decision making by providing adequate direction, guidance and local networking.     

IEEE student branch profile - Hands-on approach keeps UC-Berkeley student branch active and growing

The "hands-on practical electronics" classes (HOPE), which are offered weekly to both UC-Berkeley and high school students by student branch members, are what Torous called "our most successful achievement". The success of that activity involves the effect that the program has had in terms of outreach to the overall UC-Berkeley electronics engineering community as well as students majoring in other subjects, membership growth, and cross pollination with other IEEE student branches     

On the Nature of Mesh Currents

This short paper provides a physical interpretation of the mesh current by demonstrating that it is nothing more than the total current circulating around the associated mesh or "hole" in the network. This point of view implies the possibility of direct measurement of mesh currents by "clamp-on" ammeters. Thus, the student is provided with the conceptual advantage he has long held in the dual situation of nodal analysis, where he could easily visualize direct measurement of the dependent variables. The formulation presented allows the student to consider the mesh current as a "real" rather than "fictitious" currents, and facilitates the transformations between mesh, link, and branch currents.     

A vision-guided autonomous vehicle: an alternative micromousecompetition

A persistent problem facing today's engineering educators is how to promote students' interest in science and engineering. One of the best approaches to this challenge is to sponsor a technological competition that combines publicity, technology, and student participation. A current leading competition called “micromouse”, although earning high marks on publicity and technology, has had difficulty attracting large-scale student participation. In this paper a vision-guided autonomous vehicle project developed at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) is proposed as an alternative. The idea is to fit an ordinary radio-controlled toy car with a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera and a transmitter. Image processing and control of the car are accomplished by a personal computer (PC). The road image captured by the camera is transmitted to a PC via a transmitter-receiver pair at 900 MHz. A frame grabber board digitizes the image, and an image-processing program subsequently analyzes the road condition and generates adequate drive commands that are transmitted back to the vehicle via the built-in radio controller. Student teams write programs to compete in racing or maze solving. In this paper detailed hardware and software designs of the project are presented. The merit of the project with respect to the criteria of publicity, technology, and student participation is also addressed     

Making connections - Activity in the IEEE opens doors to employment

This paper describes the IEEE student branches active presence in providing employment offers to its student members of Virginia Tech. Also, it describes that professional working on an IEEE student branch event gives students an opportunity, albeit an informal one, to show company representatives their level of interest and enthusiasm     

Cooperative and progressive design experience for embedded systems

This paper describes a cooperative experiential learning activity to develop embedded systems design skills. Student teams design, build, and troubleshoot a microcontroller-based project composed of common embedded systems peripherals, including input/output and electromechanical devices, industry standard communication networks, and complex digital integrated circuits. The design experience is progressive, requiring each successive subsystem to be incorporated without disturbing previously completed subsystems. Furthermore, the design experience is based on a problem-based learning approach that motivates student learning and develops skills required by the student in a future professional capacity. These skills include designing to specification, use of third-party intellectual property, teamwork, communication, and lifelong learning skills. The design experience was offered to a cohort in conjunction with lectures using active learning techniques. Course evaluations were obtained from students and external reviewers, and the results show that the course was well received and achieved its educational objectives.     

Understanding of mathematics and science: efficient models forstudent assessments

Student self-reports provide information that is invaluable in assessing student backgrounds and achievements. These critical student inputs can be used to help place students in beginning courses; to identify high-risk and honors students; to evaluate the quality of courses, services, and resources; to initiate and evaluate existing and new programs; and to help students make career decisions. Faculty members can also use self-reports to efficiently examine student perceptions of their understanding of key content at the beginning and end of the courses for which they are responsible. This paper uses as a model: self-reports of first-year engineering students using the Mathematics Science Inventory (MSI). The MSI is used in placing students in beginning mathematics and chemistry courses and to evaluate their perceptions of their understanding of the key content of these courses. Significant, but differential self-reported gains in mathematics and chemistry knowledge are reported in twelve different math and chemistry courses, completed by 1995 and 1996 beginning engineering students. Complex, but generally positive, relationships are observed between course grades and pre-test and post-test self-reports of understanding of math and science content     

University-industry partnerships in biomedical engineering

We describe the activities that are vital to establishing and maintaining a thriving cooperative education and industrial internship program. In addition, we describe the benefits of such a program for not only the students but for the industrial partners and for the university. Student participants work as engineering professionals, gain valuable engineering and business experience, apply engineering concepts to real-world problems, and tend to be more focused on their career choices after participating in a co-op or internship opportunity. There are also multiple benefits to the industrial partner. Employers have the opportunity to train potential long-term employees; capture the attention of motivated, talented biomedical engineers; obtain visibility at the university; and ultimately lower their turnover and training costs. Students can also provide a fresh perspective and can be motivators contributing to the growth of the employers' organization. Finally, the academic department benefits from industrial partnerships through increased student satisfaction, improved student training, novel education programs, job placement for graduates, and research collaborations.     

Intellectual property and confidentiality issues in senior design courses

Senior capstone design courses provide students the opportunity to develop their design skills and learn about the product development process. Student project teams, a number of which are industry-sponsored, often develop creative design solutions that result in the creation of intellectual property. When this occurs, who owns the intellectual property: the student, faculty advisors, industry sponsors, or academic institutions? The paper discusses how academic institutions, such as the Marquette University, deal with intellectual property and confidentiality issues in senior capstone design courses, in particular those that deal with biomedical engineering.     

An Instrumentation Design Laboratory

This paper describes the design laboratory associated with a course in instrumentation transducers. Students are given the requirements for an instrument, and suggestions for a method of design. They must select component values, assemble the instrument, and test its performance. This approach encourages the student to perform synthesis, rather than analysis, yet also ensures that he will master a core of knowledge. The goals of the laboratory are to increase the student's ability to perform electronic design and to increase the student's knowledge of a variety of transducers. Student evaluation indicates that these senior electrical engineers over-whelmingly favor this type of lab.